Dozens of flights cancelled at Manila airport after power outage
About 40 domestic Cebu Pacific flights canceled in the Philippines after the second power outage at the main gateway this year.
Dozens of flights have been canceled at the Philippines’ largest international airport after an unexplained power outage.
About 40 domestic Cebu Pacific flights were canceled on Monday following the power outage at Manila Airport’s Terminal 3, the airport said in a statement.
“Flight delays are expected due to the outage,” Ninoy Aquino International Airport said in a statement posted to Facebook, without commenting on the cause of the outage.
The computers of airlines and immigration authorities were still able to function partially and process incoming and outgoing passengers, the statement said.
Manila Electric Company, the airport’s operator, said it was investigating the cause of the power outage, which disrupted the travel plans of many Filipinos trying to return home after the three-day Labor Day weekend.
Cebu Pacific said in a statement it was offering its passengers the option to rebook or receive a refund to put into a travel fund for future use.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. instructed Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista to restore normal power to the airport’s Terminal 3 “as soon as possible” while providing assistance to affected passengers, the presidential office said in a statement.
The travel disruption comes after a power outages at the country’s main gateway in January disrupted some 300 flightsaffecting about 65,000 passengers.
Ninoy Aquino International Airport was ranked the world’s worst international airport for business travel last year, according to a ranking by California-based luggage storage app Bounce, which cited the gateway’s lack of facilities and poor record of delays and cancellations.
The Philippines is building billion-dollar airports in the provinces around Manila to ease pressure on its main gateway.
On Sunday, Marcos Jr. that his government would step in to help resolve power outages on the central islands of Negros and Panay, where residents have experienced up to 12 hours of power outages since Thursday.